Who doesn't want a liberated life? Jesus offers us liberation as we grow in a Christian spiritual life. But first we need to liberate our concept of Christian Spirituality from ideas that relegate it to Church on Sunday, new age self help, devotional or ascetical practices, or fundamentalist aggression. Traditionally, Christian spirituality liberates Jesus' disciples from personal sin and helps them to challenge sin's social consequences so that once liberated, they will work to liberate others. Christian spirituality (living the Gospel) brings good news for the poor, liberty for the captives, recovery of sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. This is what Jesus came to do, and this is what we as his disciples are called to do as we live our Christian callings in the world. Whether we are at home, work, or play we are called to be Christian. Beyond Piety invites readers to grow in their understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. More than a book on Franciscan or Hispanic Spirituality, this book is about the Christian Spirituality all Christians are called to live. It is about our human and Christian identity and the God we believe in. It is about getting to know the Word of God and letting that Word get to know us. It is about worship and religious devotion and moving beyond piety to Christian action. It is about the call to justice and liberation.

How do ordinary men and women in Muslim-majority societies create religion-informed views of political topics such as democracy and economics? Beyond Piety and Politics provides a groundbreaking approach to understanding the depth and variety of political attitudes held by people who consider themselves to be pious Muslims. Using survey data on religious preferences and behavior, the authors argue for the relevance and importance of four outlook categories—religious individualist, social communitarian, religious communitarian, and post-Islamist—and use these to explore complex and nuanced attitudes of devout Muslims toward issues like democracy and economic distribution. They also reveal how intrafaith variation in political attitudes is not due simply to doctrinal differences but is also a product of the social aspects of religious association operating within political contexts. By highlighting the dynamic societal and political implications of religious devotion, Beyond Piety and Politics offers a fascinating new theoretical perspective on Islam and politics.

Who doesn't want a liberated life? Jesus offers us liberation as we grow in a Christian spiritual life. But first we need to liberate our concept of Christian Spirituality from ideas that relegate it to Church on Sunday, new age self help, devotional or ascetical practices, or fundamentalist aggression. Traditionally, Christian spirituality liberates Jesus' disciples from personal sin and helps them to challenge sin's social consequences so that once liberated, they will work to liberate others. Christian spirituality (living the Gospel) brings good news for the poor, liberty for the captives, recovery of sight for the blind, and freedom for the oppressed. This is what Jesus came to do, and this is what we as his disciples are called to do as we live our Christian callings in the world. Whether we are at home, work, or play we are called to be Christian. Beyond Piety invites readers to grow in their understanding of what it means to be a disciple of Christ. More than a book on Franciscan or Hispanic Spirituality, this book is about the Christian Spirituality all Christians are called to live. It is about our human and Christian identity and the God we believe in. It is about getting to know the Word of God and letting that Word get to know us. It is about worship and religious devotion and moving beyond piety to Christian action. It is about the call to justice and liberation.

Known for a tradition of Confucian filial piety, East Asian societies have some of the oldest and most rapidly aging populations on earth. Today these societies are experiencing unprecedented social challenges to the filial tradition of adult children caring for aging parents at home. Marshalling mixed methods data, this volume explores the complexities of aging and caregiving in contemporary East Asia. Questioning romantic visions of a senior’s paradise, chapters examine emerging cultural meanings of and social responses to population aging, including caregiving both for and by the elderly. Themes include traditional ideals versus contemporary realities, the role of the state, patterns of familial and non-familial care, social stratification, and intersections of caregiving and death. Drawing on ethnographic, demographic, policy, archival, and media data, the authors trace both common patterns and diverging trends across China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, and Korea.

How do ordinary men and women in Muslim-majority societies create religion-informed views of political topics such as democracy and economics? Beyond Piety and Politics provides a groundbreaking approach to understanding the depth and variety of political attitudes held by people who consider themselves to be pious Muslims. Using survey data on religious preferences and behavior, the authors argue for the relevance and importance of four outlook categories—religious individualist, social communitarian, religious communitarian, and post-Islamist—and use these to explore complex and nuanced attitudes of devout Muslims toward issues like democracy and economic distribution. They also reveal how intrafaith variation in political attitudes is not due simply to doctrinal differences but is also a product of the social aspects of religious association operating within political contexts. By highlighting the dynamic societal and political implications of religious devotion, Beyond Piety and Politics offers a fascinating new theoretical perspective on Islam and politics.

Much has been written about the "southern lady," that pervasive and enduring icon of antebellum regional identity. But how did the lady get on her pedestal--and were the lives of white southern women always so different from those of their northern contemporaries? In her ambitious new book, Cynthia A. Kierner charts the evolution of the lives of white southern women through the colonial, revolutionary, and early republican eras. Using the lady on her pedestal as the end--rather than the beginning--of her story, she shows how gentility, republican political ideals, and evangelical religion successively altered southern gender ideals and thereby forced women to reshape their public roles. Kierner concludes that southern women continually renegotiated their access to the public sphere--and that even the emergence of the frail and submissive lady as icon did not obliterate women's public role.Kierner draws on a strong overall command of early American and women's history and adds to it research in letters, diaries, newspapers, secular and religious periodicals, travelers' accounts, etiquette manuals, and cookery books. Focusing on the issues of work, education, and access to the public sphere, she explores the evolution of southern gender ideals in an important transitional era. Specifically, she asks what kinds of changes occurred in women's relation to the public sphere from 1700 to 1835. In answering this major question, she makes important links and comparisons, across both time and region, and creates a chronology of social and intellectual change that addresses many key questions in the history of women, the South, and early America.